The Little Man
by Miyuki Ningyo
Summary: It's the Ningyo Clan's moon festival, and there's a new guest this year. But what will happen when she drifts off to sleep and awakes to find that everything's a bit smaller and the gifts and offering are... ALIVE!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Nope, I do NOT own Naruto and I do NOT own The Nutcracker. **

**ROFLMAO Sempai, I got your message. Very cool; you like my idea, and of course you may read the first chapter XD I don't know if you'll like it though… (Evil laughter in the background) It's sort of like a Christmas story, only Naruto-ish and in the middle of summer. Oh well. **

"I am NOT wearing this Yuki-chan!" Hirata yelled as her friend Miyuki tightened the back of her elaborate ball-gown. Miyuki looked up from her work.

"Sempai, if you didn't want to go to my clan's moon festival, then you should have said something." Miyuki sighed as she adjusted the length of the bow.

"It's not like I don't want to go, it's just I'm not a dress person." Hirata shrugged.

"Hold still or it's going to rip." Miyuki told Hirata. "Alright, that should do it." Miyuki turned Hirata so that she was facing the mirror behind them. Hirata examined herself thoroughly. Her dress was tight along the torso and frilled out on the end. It had short sleeves that stayed at her shoulders with tiny, silver jewels that came down it in a star-like pattern from them. The dress itself was made of a handsome midnight blue velvet fabric that extended to her ankles. "So what do you think sempai?"

"Um…" Hirata murmured as she turned herself to see what she looked like from all angles. Miyuki put her hands over her eyes.

"You don't like it!" She bawled into her hands. Hirata put on a terrified and shocked look.

"No, no, it's not like that, my bipolar friend. I was just glancing it over is all. I really like it! I do!" She said patting Miyuki on the back. Miyuki immediately smiled and hugged her squealing with joy. Hirata laughed nervously. "So what does your dress look like?" She asked.

"Well since I knew you were going to wear my old one I decided to go buy I knew one! Black _of course_. Wait here; I'll go put it on!" Miyuki giggled. Hirata groaned as she watched herself in the mirror. Sucking her (SKINNY) stomach in, she looked at herself again.

"Maybe it was the pizza… Yeah, definitely the pizza."

Miyuki came running back into the room. "Oy, sempai! Could you help tie this for me?" Miyuki asked. Hirata came over and tied the small string in the back. Then she turned Miyuki around by the shoulders and examined her friend. Her dress had a sweetheart neck and feel to her ankles as well. It was black silk, as she had specified, with small silver clouds that were scattered about her dress. "Dresses are done! Now for hair!" Miyuki clapped her hands. Hirata practically fell over. _Since when was she into all of this girly stuff? _

And so they fixed each other's hair into buns. Miyuki had pulled out small, curly pieces of her hair and let them lay sloppily over her head. "Are we done yet?" Hirata asked sarcastically.

"Nope!" Miyuki grinned. "Shoes." Miyuki led Hirata into her room and pulled out two brand-new pairs of slippers. They were both silver, and matched each dress perfectly. Both girls slipped them on and sprayed themselves with perfume. "Okay! _Now _we're ready!"

Miyuki and Hirata left Miyuki's house and headed down her clan's small street into the main house. It was a huge, three story building with huge windows. Although Miyuki's family was the main branch, they preferred to live in a separate, smaller house. It was nearing nine o'clock and was already dark out when they reached the building. Miyuki led Hirata up the stairs on the side of the building to the second level. Miyuki put her hand on the doorknob. "Just as we rehearsed, remember?" She asked Hirata. Hirata nodded. "On three. One, two…" Miyuki opened the door to the huge room. Both girls walked through onto the balcony the door led to. Inside on the level below them they could see a huge party going on below. As the doors shut loudly behind them, Hirata and Miyuki linked arms and walked down the stairs and around so that they were facing everyone. Hirata and Miyuki stopped several stairs before the floor and Hirata let go of Miyuki's arm and stood to the side. "Welcome everyone, to the Ningyo (Yes, I have changed my last name in the story) Clan's Moon festival." Everyone clapped. "As you all know, this celebration is to honor the moon spirit. But it is also a time to catch up with old friends, make new friends, and have a fun-filled night. Hope you all enjoy yourselves!" Everyone clapped louder again before returning to their festivities. Miyuki sighed with relief and Hirata and her joined arms again and walked down to join everyone else at the party.

They spent the next two hours dancing with each other, with people in the room, devouring the food, and laughing at any and everything. Time went by quickly and the two girls found themselves exhausted and sprawled on the couch by eleven. "So," Hirata laughed.

"So." Miyuki repeated. Both girls laughed until they had both hurt in the stomach and could laugh no more.

"So," Hirata scanned the room. "Do you know all of these people Yuki-chan?"

"Not everyone sempai." Miyuki put her finger over her lip as she looked from face to face. "Those parties over there are my mom's friends, no idea who they are." Miyuki pointed to a crowd of middle-aged women. "And everyone in the far-right corner." Miyuki pointed to a huge crowd of middle-aged and older men and women.

"What about," Hirata stopped as a small party, no more than nine, came walking through the back doors into room. They weaved their way through the crowd and took a spot parallel from Miyuki and Hirata. "Them."

"Oh _them_. Well they definitely aren't family or friends of any family I have. They come here to talk and what not. It's sort of like… a vacation from all the traveling they do. They're ninja's after all." Miyuki smiled at her friend.

"Ninja's?" Hirata questioned. "In these parts?"

"That's why they come here once a year. No troubles, lot's of parties, hot springs, site-seeing. It's perfect for relaxing." Miyuki beamed.

Hirata glanced at the crowd. "Do you know what the red-head's name is?"

"Which one."

"Average height, lazy eyes, black bottom with the grey top, looks like he doesn't want to be here." Hirata tool Miyuki's head and faced it at the man she specified.

Miyuki looked back from the red-head to Hirata. "His name's Sasori. He's a bit quite, so he's often refered to by people as a piece of furniture."

Hirata laughed. "Sexiest damn sofa I've ever seen!" Miyuki shot her hand at her sempai's mouth.

"HE'S A NINJA BAKA!" Miyuki hissed. But it was too late. The blond next to the red-head elbowed him and they both looked over at the two teenage girls. "Son of a batch of cookies."

"Well Miyuki-san, you said you weren't coming to this one." The blond said with a smirk as he approached the two girls."And you even brought a friend un."

Miyuki's eyebrow twitched. "I didn't think you would be coming to this one DeiDei." She growled. The blond held out his hand.

"Care to danse un?" He held it there for almost fifteen seconds during which Miyuki kept shaking her head 'no'. She stopped.

"You aren't going to go away, are you?"

"Never un." Miyuki sighed and grabbed his hand. He led her away and onto the dance floor, leaving the two others behind. The red-head sat where Miyuki had been making Hirata blush.

"So I'm a sofa?" The red-head asked amused. Hirata tried to hide her face from embarrassment.

"Well um…" She started tapping her fingers together. The red-head laughed.

"Care to dance?" He asked, still sniggering to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Hirata glanced over at the red-head. "What?" She asked baffled.

"I said," the red-head's face went strait, as if a hand had wiped the laughter away. "Do you," He pointed to Hirata. "Want to dance," He put his arms and rocked them back and forth as if dancing with someone invisible. "With me?" He pointed to himself, still strait faced.

Hirata burst out laughing as she looked at Sasori. "Sure, sure." She smirked. The red-head bowed his head, grabbed her hand, and led her to the dance floor. They positioned themselves next to Deidara and Miyuki and began to dance. The steps to the song were close to that of a normal ball, just more jumping than one would expect. It was one of the traditional moon festival dances, so everyone in the room new all of the steps except Hirata. "I really don't know how to…" Hirata blushed as she let Sasori twirl her.

"Dance?" Sasori asked. Hirata nodded. "Just follow my lead." He slowed his pace. "One, two, three. One, two, three." Sasori helped her with moving her feet. "And one more and then we jump." He said. Then he place his hand on Hirata's hip and lifted her up into the air and gracefully set her back down. "Next you twirl," He spun her. "And start again. This time with two jumps." They repeated slowly until Hirata got the hang of it and they went with the crowds speed.

Several feet from them Miyuki and Deidara were dancing. Miyuki kept him at arm's length as he babbled on about why she should just dance normally. "Yuki-chan,"

"Miyuki-_san _please." Miyuki hissed.

"Miyuki-san you would be much more comfortable if you just-"

"After last year?! Not on your life!"

"How was I supposed to know they would do that un?" Deidara whined. "Do you think I would try to lick you on purpose? Honestly you where to much perfume un."

"Shut it or I'm just going to sit down again." Miyuki warned. Deidara sighed and continued to dance.

"There! See you got it!" Sasori smiled at Hirata who blushed and looked away.

"Yeah because I have such a great teacher." She mumbled.

Sasori was about to respond when a loud voice overtook the room. "Attention everyone! The show is about to begin! Could everyone please get to the walls as we prepare tonight's entertainment." Sasori bowed to Hirata and him and the blond returned to the rest of their group in the far corner.

"What's going on?" Hirata asked as her and Miyuki were reunited once more.

"It's the puppet show! My great-uncle always makes these beautiful dolls and shows them off in a show. They're like clock-work people." Miyuki giggled. "They're really cool."

"Oh, sounds neat." Hirata beamed as the two sat on the couch from before.

"Now ladies and gentlemen, the show is about to begin!" The lights dimmed to almost blackness and a single light was focused in the center. "Long ago, six adventures traveled the land, searching for their kidnapped friend. Their adventures took them to the heart of their kidnappers' lair where they battled one of them…" The voice said. Suddenly a pink haired girl and a purple haired woman appeared and everyone clapped. On closer expectation, Hirata saw all of the places where their bodies could move there were joints. Looking closer she could see that they were wooden people whose faces were painted on but they were wearing real clothes.

The two ladies bowed and the audience clapped. "They didn't even do a story-line and everyone's clapping?" Hirata whispered to Miyuki.

"My great-uncle does a new chapter every year. You've just missed all of the other ones." Miyuki whispered back.

A wooden man dressed in black robes with red hair walked out and the audience gasped. He positioned himself in front of the girls and took a fighting stance. The ladies followed suit and attacked. The three continued to fight for another five minutes, making the audience gasp, sheer, and laugh at some comical parts. It got to the point where it looked as though the red-head would win, but then the purple haired women took out a wooden sword and stabbed him. The red haired man fell dead and then stood up and all three bowed then stopped moving. The lights went back on and the audience clapped and whistled. "That's all for this year! Have a wonderful evening!" An old man called to the room as he walked over to Miyuki and Hirata. "So Yuki-chan, what did you think of it this year?" He asked Miyuki.

"It was really cool. The battle effects were really good, only I'm kind of sad the red-head died…" Miyuki sighed.

"Oh don't worry! He's only a puppet." The old man said then looked at Hirata. "Is this your friend?"

Miyuki nodded. "Hirata-sempai this is my great-uncle who made the puppets."

The old man stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you Hirata. What did you think of my show?"

"It was wonderful sir. But I have to agree with Miyuki, I wish the red-head didn't die." Hirata mumbled the last part.

"Ok then, I think this might cheer you girls up then." The old man reached into his pocket and pulled out a key. "In my room there is a locked chess. Inside are miniature versions of all my life-size puppets. You each can pick one, even the red head, to keep." The man smiled, handed the key to Miyuki, and walked away. Miyuki grabbed Hirata's arm and led her down the hallway.

"Where are we going Yuki-chan?" Hirata asked.

"Isn't it obvious sempai? It's not every day he lets you take a puppet. Some of my family even says that they make magical things happen!" Miyuki said like a little kid. Hirata rolled her eyes and entered one of the rooms with Miyuki. Miyuki sped towards a chest in a corner and opened it with the key. "Wow! He has everyone in here!" Miyuki giggled with delight. "I'm choosing this guy. He's my brother's favorite and my bro couldn't come tonight, he's sick so this is his present." She said as she grabbed a man in black robes like the red-head and an orange mask on his face. "Which one do you want sempai?"

Hirata grabbed the chest from Miyuki. "I think I'll take this one." She said as she grabbed the miniature red-headed doll.


	3. Chapter 3

**Waz up everyone?! My apologies to any Sasuke and Hidan fans. For there will be some things in the story (not sure what chapter) where they're probably gonna be the butt of my jokes. I'll also probably be bad-mouthing Karin, but I really don't like her so don't expect any apology about that. **

Miyuki stared blankly at the doll her friend held. "Okay." She stated with a strait face as she stood up. "Might as well put these back in my room. It'll only take a few minutes."

Hirata stood up as well.

"Sure." She shrugged. Hirata followed Miyuki out of the room and down the hall in silence. Wondering why Miyuki seemed cold all of the sudden, Hirata looked down at the doll she held in her hand. "Maybe it's because of him…" she thought. She examined the doll. He seemed so fragile, almost like porcelain, but still seemed strong and brave too. Hirata felt stupid for seeing these characteristics in a mere doll, and yet couldn't get the thought out of her mind. Coming back into reality, Hirata broke the silence between her and Miyuki, determined to find out what was up. "So, Yuki-chan…" Hirata started. She stopped when Miyuki cocked her head back to face her, only the stare she saw didn't seem as though it was coming from Miyuki. It still looked like her, only her face was strait as it was before, and more angelic. Not to be offensive to Miyuki, but Hirata knew her as more of a spastic, random, never going to let herself look like a doll type. In fact, Miyuki looked so much like a doll now that it was inhuman and frightening even for Hirata.

"Yes, sempai?" Miyuki asked in a cold whisper. Hirata stopped walking and Miyuki followed suit, turning directly around and facing her this time. Hirata stared horrified at her friend, who was now pale as snow and whose eyes had just lost their pupils. "Is something…wrong?" Hirata started running as fast as she could away from her friend. She didn't look back, just held the doll tightly and ran right into the middle of the ballroom. The people there looked like Miyuki; the once lively crowd was now at a slow pace, no dancing or chatting. Everyone simply was walking around; all looking as though they had seen a ghost. Hirata ran right through all of them and outside where a chill ran down her spine. Looking around in the dead of night Hirata saw from the light radiating from inside that it was snowing.

"Snow in July?" Hirata asked the world. Completely scared out of her wits, she picked up her pace trying to get as far away from the building as possible.

"Sempai wait!" She heard Miyuki yell from behind her. Hirata turned and slipped on a puddle of ice (how it got the so quickly the world will never know) and fell backwards. The last thing she saw before turning and hitting her head was Miyuki chasing after her. It could have been her imagination, but Miyuki looked as though she were wearing a poofy, frilly, pink dress. Then, Hirata shut her eyes and everything went black.

"Seeeeeeeeeeeeeemmmmmmmmmmmppppppppppppppppppppaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…" Hirata heard Miyuki hum.

"Get away from me!" Hirata yelled sitting up and backing away into a wall. "Ow. Hey when did that get there?!" Hirata said turning her head to see the wall, and then scanning the room to realize that she was back in Miyuki's bedroom. She looked around until her eyes landed on Miyuki, who had tears running down her face. "Yu…Yu…Yuki-chan?"

"Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!" Miyuki started pouring all over her carpet. "My sempai HATES me!" Hirata looked at her. Her hair was messy and her skin was back to her normal color. And judging by the tears, Miyuki was her bipolar self again. Hirata sighed with relief and Miyuki stopped crying and shot her an angry look. "So I go downstairs to get us popsicles, then I come back and find you playing dead on the floor, then you go ahead and say something like that?! And to top that all off, you're all happy when you see me upset! Hirata I'm going to KILL YOU!" Miyuki screeched as she grabbed Hirata by the collar of her shirt and picked her off of the ground. Hirata padded her friend on the head.

"No, I'm sorry Yuki-chan! I thought something else was happening; my eternal apologies." Hirata smiled as she pulled her friend's hands off of her.

"Oh, ok then! Here's your popsicle!" Miyuki handed Hirata a red popsicle. Just then Hirata recalled everything from that night, particularly all of the red-heads she saw.

"The festival!" She said out loud.

"No, sempai that's not for another two hours. I wish it would just hurry up and happen too but time takes forever to get stuff done." Miyuki sighed. Hirata looked up at her strangely.

"What dress are you wearing?" Hirata asked, seeing if anything she saw was some kind of vision of the future.

"Dress? As if! C'mon sempai, you know me better than that! Dresses are for girly-girls!" Miyuki started laughing.

"Then what are you doing with your hair and make-up and what shoes are you wearing?" Hirata asked worriedly.

"They said I had to dress up, and I know most people are gonna be in ball-gowns, but I'm just gonna throw my hair in a pony-tail, but on some slippers, a nice shirt, and regular ol' pants and be done with it." Miyuki said as she sucked on her yellow popsicle.

"Yellow?" Hirata thought out loud.

Miyuki looked down at her popsicle. "Yeah, I love yellow candies and stuff. Go lemon. If you want one too I can go get you a different one."

"No, no." Hirata thought for a second. "Do you by any chance know a blonde that comes to the parties your family has? Ah, he's um about 5'5', long hair with a pony-tail, not related to you, says this hmmm sound?" Hirata asked.

"Sorry, no. No one outside the family is supposed to come. The only reason you're coming is because I'm part of the main branch and I wanted you to come." Miyuki said as she pushed three-fourths of the popsicle into her mouth.

"Do you have a great-uncle or something like that that makes these awesome puppets?" Hirata licked her popsicle.

"Yeah I do but I don't see what that has to do with any of this and, hey wait. How did you know about that? And why are you asking me all of these questions?" Miyuki got very concerned.

"Do you mind if we go to the place your family is going to have this party?" Hirata suddenly changed topic.

"Yeah, sure sempai. We need to rehearse what to do anyway. And you never answered my question." Miyuki informed Hirata as they exited the door.

"Never mind that Yuki-chan." Hirata muttered as the exited Miyuki's house. Hirata picked up her pace as she saw the house, then sprinted to it.

"Sempai! I'm not going to run after you and get a workout if that's what you're trying to do!" Miyuki called after her.

"Fair enough! Just meet me inside!" Hirata called back. She then reached the doors and pushed them open. If what she had seen had been a dream, then this would be her first time in the building. What scared her was that it looked exactly the same as from her "vision", only this time in was empty. She started running at the alter on the far side, for it seemed as though it were the only thing in the huge space that had something on it. Hirata kept running, but soon realized she wasn't getting much closer to the alter. Looking around at her surroundings, she realized that they were getting bigger. Much bigger. Or was she getting smaller? Hirata stopped when her eyes met the now huge alter with what she could make out to be small offerings. Well, not so small to her. It was then that Hirata's eyes met those of a red-headed doll. The doll looked just like the one from her dream-like incident, only he was probably her size now.

Hirata started to panic. "I really am small!" She whispered.

"No, you seem like the right size to me. Kukukuku…" A hoarse voice said from behind her. Terrified, Hirata slowly turned her head to see that of a rat's. She screamed and ran forward until she was under the alter and looked at the rat who was laughing at her. "Don't worry dear. Be a good little girl and we won't have to hurt ya. Now come with me back to Hanabusa and I promise I won't hurt ya." The rat smiled and Hirata could see deformed, yellow teeth. The rat himself looked like he was wearing the armor of a soldier, including that of a huge sword. The rat drew it and started walking at Hirata who backed up into the wall. The rat reached out his hand and Hirata slapped it. "Oh, so you've got a little fight left in ya? I like that."

"Then you're going to love me." A jaded voice said. Both Hirata and the rat turned to look at the red-headed doll that had just jumped off the side of the table and landed next to the rat. The red-head pulled his fist back and flung it straight at the rat who went flying. "Picking on ladies and wasting my time. The nerve of you rats." He hissed at the rodent. He then turned to Hirata and cocked his head to the side. "And who are you?" He asked.

Hirata frowned as she examined his face. "Hey! You really are my doll!"

"Excuse me?" The red-head asked as he inched a little bit away from Hirata.

"Sir!" Hirata heard another man yell as he too dropped from the table above. Landing right next to the red-head, Hirata saw a blonde man with a bony-tail.

"Ha! I knew it!" Hirata roared triumphantly as she pointed to both men, pleased with herself that she didn't imagine anything. Both gave her weird looks then the blonde returned to his conversation.

"We've got at least a hundred rats on our tail. And we're only at ten guys, including us un." The blonde then glanced at Hirata. "Ah, who is that un?"

"I really have no idea." The read-head shook his head. Several screams and jumps were heard on the other side of the table as eight more men jumped off the alter. In the distance, dozens of rats started coming at them from a crack in the far wall. "Oh for the love of God! Do you rodents WANT to get killed!? Gah! You're all so annoying!" The red-head raised a fist at the army of rats.

"What do we do sir?" One of the men asked.

"Go for that hole! It's our best bet." The red-head told his men as he pointed at crack the rats were coming from. The blonde looked at him oddly.

"We _want_ to run at the huge army that's trying to kill us un?!" He asked.

"If it means Hanabusa, yes we do." The red-head said. He then turned to Hirata. "Miss, if you would like to live then come with us."

Hirata looked at the rampaging army then at the red-head. "_Completely_ fine with me."

The red-head nodded. "Deidara! Fly her and the rest of the men across. I'll make a path."

"Yes sir!" The blonde said as he threw a small bird onto the ground. There was a puff of smoke and then the small bird turned into at huge owl.

"It's probably normal size now…" Hirata thought. The men started to climb on the back of the owl and the blonde gave her a look.

"Don't wait for the grass to grow un! We're in a war!" He ran over and grabbed Hirata's arm and led her over to the bird. "Well climb up!" He ordered as he shoved Hirata up and two of the men pulled her the rest of the way. "Here we go un!" The blond said as he jumped onto the head of the owl and it lifted off of the ground.

"Holy ****! We're flying!" Hirata exclaimed.

"Well what else do birds do?" One of the soldiers asked Hirata sarcastically. Hirata shot him a look. He had silvery hair, pinkish-purplish eyes, and a dim-witted stare. Looking down from the side Hirata saw the red-head fight his way through the rats below.

"Is he going to be ok?" Hirata asked.

"Most likely not." A man with long black hair in a pony-tail stated blankly.

"Shouldn't someone help him?!" Hirata cried.

"Sure! Just find someone who can take on an army and not die and we'll be good!" Another man smirked.

"Wait if he can't do that than why is he down there?!" Hirata panicked.

"You haven't heard of him? How can she not of heard of him?" The silver-haired one asked his comrades. "So you've never heard of the Sasori of the Red-Sand? He took down an entire nation with a single jutsu! He can't die because he's a puppet! Well, not as immortal as me, of course." The man said proudly. Hirata rolled her eyes as the blonde turned his head back to all of them.

"Prepare yourselves un." He said.

"Prepare, for what?" Hirata asked.

"Duck!" She heard the red-head call as he jumped up and landed on the owl. He grabbed Hirata's head and forced it down so that her cheek was touching the bird. The owl spiraled, turned diagonal, and slipped into the crack.


End file.
